The First Phoenix
by thefirstphoenix
Summary: Post OoTP: Harry has learned about his destiny, and with the help of the First Phoenix, he sets off to fulfill it. Wandless magic, anamagi training. Please Read and Review.
1. Prolouge

Guess What? I own Harry Potter! No, Officer...just kidding. The books belong to JKR, and the movies to WB.

**The First Phoenix**

Hephaestus, the God of Fire, was working hard in his fire. Sometimes, he wondered why he didn't use his fire to destroy the Earth. None of the people on earth worshiped him in any way, yet he did not punish them at all for their lack of respect. He rarely created forest fires, and other uncontrolled blazes, and always had a vacant look in his eye, as if he was thinking about something.

The truth was Hephaestus was always thinking, and shortly after Zeus gave Merlin his powers, Hephaestus decided it was time to do something with both fire and magic. He created a beautiful bird. The bird had crimson feathers, and the ability to travel by fire. The song of this bird will increase the courage of the pure of heart and strike fear into the hearts of the impure.

All phoenix tears would have healing powers, but there would be one phoenix with special powers. Since Hephaestus knew that the phoenixes would be immortal, he only created seven of them. The first phoenix, had special tears could make the drinker immune to all poisons. However, these tears would only work on the people that the phoenix trusted.

In his fiery palace, Hephaestus got down to work. Since the phoenixes would be immortal, he would only allow seven to be created. The first phoenix would be able to have a total of six eggs, dispersed over thousands of years. Since Hephaestus was quite ugly, he decided to make his creation beautiful. Thus, the First Phoenix was born.

* * *

It was a stormy day in northern Scotland. A lone figure walked out of the Hogwarts gates, without looking back on the school that was being constructed there. This person was Rowena Ravenclaw, and she was walking down the road towards the village of Hogsmeade.

The village of Hogsmeade was still under construction. Four of the greatest witches and wizards that had ever lived were creating a magical institution, to educate young witches and wizards. Where there are workers, there needed to be housing, and that is how the village of Hogsmeade came to be.

Every institution needs professors, and that is exactly what Rowena Ravenclaw was searching for. She stepped into the Hogs Head, a bar located in the center of the new town. A short witch, with dreamy eyes approached her and asked, "Rowena Ravenclaw?"

"Let's go upstairs," Ravenclaw replied.

Once they were settled in a private parlor upstairs, they got settled down for the interview.

"What position are you applying to teach, Mrs. Trelawny?" Asked Ravenclaw.

"Divination"

"And what would that be?"

"Divination is the art of predicting the future. I use various things to predict what will happen in the future. There are signs all around us, but only those with the inner eye can see..." She trailed off, and took a sip of tea.

"I see," said Ravenclaw. In actuality she was thinking that there was no point in offering this subject at Hogwarts. "Well, I'll be getting back to you, and I will owl you should we be needing your services."

As Ravenclaw turned to leave, she heard a voice unlike the voice that Trelawny had been using earlier. _"Seven there shall be...immortal firebirds...the last one will be born from the first one after the lion eats the serpent...the seventh one will be equal in power to the first...the seventh one will be born after the lion eats the serpent._"

"Miss Trelawny?" Asked Ravenclaw, turning around.

The witch was sound asleep in the chair. Ravenclaw turned around, and left the room, pondering what had just happened there, not knowing that her heir would encounter a similar situation one thousand years in the future.

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A/N:

I do have a plot worked out on paper, and will be sure to update next Sunday. My school starts tomorrow, and it's a new school, so I'll have to see about how much homework I have in order to get an update schedule.

If anyone reading this is willing to volunteer their time as a beta reader, their work would be appreciated.

**Please REVIEW!!!**


	2. With the Dursleys

DISCLAIMER: If I had a few billion dollars, I'd buy Harry Potter, but since I don't, I am just writing fan fictions on the Internet. I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: Surprise! I decided to post this before Sunday, since I had it done, and I needed to get working on the next chapter. The next one will be much longer.

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**Chapter 1: With the Dursleys**

All along Privet Drive, there was no trace of the drought that had taken place last summer. For several months, it had been raining off and on, and all of the gardens were flooded. The weather was warm, which caused the grass to grow at an uncontrollable rate.

Inside of number four, a boy named Harry Potter was sound asleep—for the first time in several days. Harry Potter was not a normal person. To some, he is a dangerous criminal who attends St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys, but the people in his world looked up to him as a hero.

Harry Potter was a wizard. He did not attend St. Brutus's. Instead, he would be starting his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the magical world, he was known to most as "The Boy Who Lived." When he was just one year old, Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard who ever lived attacked him. Somehow, he survived the Avada Kedavra killing curse, which had killed so many other people, including his parents. Instead of dying in a flash of green light, the curse rebounded upon Voldemort, tearing him from his body, leaving a lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead. The world was now free from the dark wizard, and Harry Potter became an instant celebrity.

Since then, Voldemort had used some ancient dark magic to regain his body. For the past year, the Ministry of Magic had been ignorant about the return of Voldemort, but in light of the recent battle, which took place inside the Ministry of Magic, they had been forced to accept the fact that Harry was telling the truth. It had been a devastating battle for Harry, because he had lost the closest thing that he had to a father. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, had gone to aid the others in battle, when his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, had murdered him.

Harry woke up with a start. What was that dream that he just had about? Was it a vision? This was the first night he had not had a nightmare about Sirius falling though the veil. Harry got out of bed, dressed, and quietly walked downstairs. The clock on the mantel showed that it was 4 in the morning. It wasn't raining today, so Harry decided to go for a walk.

The air outside was hot and muggy. Harry decided to jog around the neighborhood a few times, then walk over to the park to watch the sunrise. As Harry approached a street corner, he paused, hearing a familiar voice.

"Pass the weed," the voice asked.

"Here you go Big D," another responded.

Dudley was smoking pot again. Harry wondered how the Dursleys could be so oblivious to this. Did they notice that the park was always vandalized when Dudley went over to have "tea" with his gang?

A young boy quietly walked past Harry, and turned the corner before Harry could stop him. He looked familiar, but Harry couldn't remember where he had seen him before. He couldn't have been more than eleven years old. Harry knew what would happen, and kept listing.

"Lookie here...we've got a tiny little boy to beat up," Dudley said.

A brief struggle was heard. Harry wished he had remembered his invisibility cloak, but that was folded up neatly back in his trunk. Harry knew that he had to act fast. He heard a fist connecting with a body, and a muffled scream. Suddenly a police officer rounded a corner. Harry signaled the officer, who approached the corner. Quietly, Harry explained the situation.

The officer drew his gun, and motioned for Harry to stay back.

"Freeze! Put your hands on the ground!" The officer yelled.

The officer cuffed Dudley and the gang, and began to fill out some paperwork. A van arrived, and they were shipped off. Harry and the officer hurried over to the unfortunate child, to see what kind of condition he was in. He had a bruised shoulder, and was bleeding from the lip and nose.

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Zaccheus Jameson," the boy replied.

"What hurts?" Harry asked.

"My shoulder, my nose, my mouth, and my ankle."

"Listen here," the officer said. "We're going to take you to the hospital to get you fixed up. You can call your parents from there. The ambulance will be here in a few minutes. You'll be ok"

"Yeah," Harry echoed. "You'll be fine. The doctors are very good here."

The ambulance arrived, and carried Zaccheus off. As Harry began to walk home, it started to rain again.

* * *

"Boy, get in here right now," Uncle Vernon said, as Harry entered the house.

Aunt Petunia gasped. "Go upstairs and dry off, then come right back down hear and clean up the mess you've made."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia."

"Boy, where's Dudley?"

"I don't know Uncle Vernon."

Harry trudged up the stairs to the shower. After a five-minute shower and a change of clothes, Harry walked downstairs to begin cleaning up the water. It wasn't really that big of deal, and with a few paper towels, it was cleaned right up.

Harry was reading his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook when the phone rang.

"Oh Duddykins! What have they done to you? Where are you?" Petunia anxiously asked.

Harry knew exactly what was going on, but he sat there, masking his facial expression. Now wasn't the right time to be caught smirking at his relatives, and he knew it.

Aunt Petunia hung up the phone, her face very pale. "Vernon, we need to go to somewhere now," she said.

"Where?" Vernon asked, looking over his paper.

"Boy, go to your room," Petunia said.

Harry wished he had a pair of extendable ears to listen to them. He'd have to ask Fred and George for a pair once he left the Dursleys. In a few minutes, he heard the door shut. As usual, they had forgotten about him.

Once again, it was storming horrifically. Suddenly, there was a burst of fire, and Dumbledore appeared in his room, with Fawkes on his shoulder. "_Colloportus,_ _Silencio_," he said, pointing his wand at the door.

"Good morning, Harry." He said, turning around, to find Harry's wand pointed at his heart.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"Your Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore." Dumbledore replied quickly. He had been expecting something like this, so he added "I brought Fawkes with me to prove my identity."

Fawkes trilled. Harry knew that a phoenix was an excellent judge of character, so he lowered his wand.

"Ok, professor. Can't be too careful these days. My relatives are gone, so you can stay a while."

"Thank you, but I can't stay for long. I just needed to get a message to you personally, so you could be assured of its validity. First of all, I want to apologize for not telling you about the prophecy earlier. It is a lot to think about, and I just didn't want you to be burdened by it. However, as many objects from my office learned, I shouldn't keep information from you."

Harry felt embarrassed at the last remark. "I'm sorry about your office, Professor."

"That's quite all right. A few repairing charms, and everything was back in order. Also, I wanted to tell you that you will be training with various members of the order after we pick you up from here in a week, which if my memory is correct would be the day before your birthday. You need to be here for a little more than a month to ensure that your protection remains intact. "

Harry was excited, but he soon remembered something very important. "What about the fact that I'm still and underage wizard?" Harry asked.

"As headmaster of Hogwarts, I know a few charms that will keep the ministry from detecting any magic that is preformed in Grimmauld Place. Also, the fact that it's under the Fideleus charm and completely unplottable will keep the ministry from finding it. I think you will find that the ministry will be more cooperative now, but I can't tell you more at this time. I must be off now, but before I go, I thought that I'd give you this book to read over the next week, to get a head start on your training." He handed Harry a large book, which was titled _Advanced Dueling_, and it was written by Nevv R. Luz.

"Thank you, sir" Harry said.

There was a burst of fire, and a click as the door unlatched, and Dumbledore was gone. Harry began to read his new book. It was very interesting, and he was certain to find a few interesting hexes in it.

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**Review Responses: **

**Luckyfiddler:** Thank you very much. That was just the prologue, and is setting the scene for it to shift over to the story. I liked some things I've read about in other works, such as animagi training, and I think that Harry might actually become an unregistered animagi.

**Yami Rose:** Thanks for your review. I hope this chapter will answer your first question, and as for chapter size, I will try to make the next one longer. Remember, that was just the prologue, so this chapter is a bit longer. My first day of school wasn't too bad, but then again, we didn't really do anything...hopefully this will keep up, so I can update more.

* * *

**Next Update: **I don't know exactly when I'll be able to update again. The next chapter will be almost twice as long as this one, and right now I'm dealing with a lot of homework and stuff. I will update in the next week or so. 


	3. The Best Birthday

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. That's why my story is posted at fanfiction(dot)net ! Don't sue me, but even if you did, you wouldn't get too much.

Also, I forgot about Harry's Birthday, so I had to work that into the plot before I could cover the rest of his summer. Sorry, but this chapter isn't as long as I had hoped, because I really hadn't planned to put it in the plot. The next one is where the excitement begins. Anyways, enough random babbling—onward!

* * *

**Chapter Two: The Best Birthday**

It was still storming outside, and because of all the rain, the gardens were now flooded. The grass was waist high, and the Dursley's push mower could no longer cut it.

With a loud crash of thunder, Harry woke up abruptly. What were these dreams that kept coming to him? Was Voldemort sending them? He got out of bed, and dressed quickly, remembering that this morning, he is going to get picked up and moved to Grimmauld place.

While he was packing up his supplies, Aunt Petunia came in and offered him some breakfast. "That's a first," he thought, but he was glad that she had done it. Come to think about it, the Dursleys had been much nicer to Harry this summer. Must have been Moody's threat. After eating his breakfast, Harry returned to his room, and finished packing.

At exactly 10:00, Harry heard the distinct pop of someone apparating nearby. A few minutes later, Remus Lupin stood in his doorway. "Come on Harry, grab your trunk. The portkey will activate in three minutes."

Three minutes later, Harry felt the familiar jerk behind the naval, and soon found himself sitting in the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Ron and Hermione ran up to him.

"Harry!" They shouted together. Harry stepped back to get a better look at his friends. They had grown quite a bit over the last two months. Ron was almost six foot one now, and Hermione was the same height as Harry.

Harry looked around. Grimmauld place looked completely different. The walls looked freshly painted, the serpent door handles were gone, and the house smelled a lot better.

"Hey guys," said Harry struggling to lift his trunk. "What's going on?"

"Harry," said Hermione, "you do realize that you can do magic in this house, and the ministry can't detect it."

"Right," Harry remembered. "_Wingardium Leviosa_," he said, pointing his wand at his trunk. He guided it up to his room, which he shared with Ron, and shut the door. Instead of two twin beds the room only contained one king size bed, a desk, a few books, a wardrobe, and Ron's trunk at the foot of the bed. Harry wondered where he would be sleeping, but Ron interrupted his thoughts.

"Guess What Harry?" Ron asked.

"What?"

"Fudge was impeached! Dad's the new minister now, and he's getting rid of all the decrees Fudge passed!" Ron said happily.

"This also means that we have the ministry behind us now in the war. Voldemort's been quiet lately. No one knows when he's going to attack, but the ministry is ready."

"Your quidditch ban is gone now too, so you can rejoin the team," Ron remembered.

"Boys," Hermione muttered

"Anyway," said Harry, sensing a fight. "What have you two been up to this summer?"

"Not much," said Hermione. "I organized the library here, and set up search charms, so we can actually use the library."

"I helped redecorate. We managed to take down the house elf heads, Mrs. Black's portrait, and all the other Slythern nonsense. Also, I just remembered, you won't be staying in this room. Follow me," Ron said, walking out the door. Harry followed, levitating his trunk behind him.

They opened the door to a magnificent room, decorated in red and gold. There was a huge king sized bed, a massive oak desk, loaded with parchment, quills, and his own wax seal, which had a phoenix on it crossed with a lightning bolt and his initials. There were a few bookshelves, with foe glasses, sneakoscopes, and of course, books. There was a door leading off to a huge bathroom, which could rival the prefects' bathroom at Hogwarts.

"What do you think?" Ron asked.

"It's amazing. Thank you so much," said Harry. "I've never had a room that was mine before, where I could place my spell books on the desk. This is amazing. "

"We all worked on it," said Hermione, "and it's an early birthday present from all of us. I put some special locking charms on the door, so only people who you want to get in can do so. "

They talked well into the afternoon about everything that had been going on in the magical world, completely forgetting about lunch. Needless to say, they were all rather hungry when they finally walked downstairs for dinner that evening. They ate dinner, and then Harry, feeling rather tired, practiced his occulmency, and went to bed.

The next morning, Harry was abruptly awakened by a splash of water. He rolled over. Another splash.

Harry had no clue what was just happening. "Good Night," Harry said sleepily.

"Good MORNING," said George, shouting the last word.

"We were told to walk you up today," said Fred with an evil grin.

"Why?" asked Harry, who was still half asleep.

"Why?" Fred echoed.

"I would expect that you would remember," said George.

"That today's your"

"Birthday!" The twins chorused loudly.

Harry instantly woke up. The twins, seeing that he was awake, turned, and with a flick of his wand, Fred sent another splash of water towards Harry. Harry took a shower, and put on some muggle clothes. After putting his wand in his pocket, he began to walk downstairs.

The kitchen was full of activity. Remus, Dumbledore, Ron, Fred, George, Mad-Eye, Tonks, Kingsley, and a few other aurors were sitting around the table, while Mrs. Weasley prepared breakfast with Hermione

"Harry, go have a seat with the others, breakfast will be served soon, and then you'll open your presents."

Harry sat down next to Tonks, who was telling Ginny, Hermione, and Ron about the first time she discovered she was a metamorphmagus. "—And as I got angrier, my eyes started to change to a dark red, and my hair shot out into spikes. After a while, my eyes returned to their proper color, but no matter what my mum did, my hair stayed spiked."

"I bet your mum was happy, "Ginny laughed.

"After that, they took me to St. Mungo's, and they determined that I was a metamorphmagus, and my parents hired a trainer to teach me how to use my new abilities. I got to keep my hair in spikes after that," Tonks finished.

Harry was staring at his plate, thinking about what Tonks had just said. Once, the Dursleys had given Harry a horrible haircut. However, the next morning, all his hair had grown back to how it was.

"You all right there, Harry?" Ron asked. "You seem a little spaced out."

"No, I'm just thinking about everything.'

After finishing the breakfast, the group moved into the living room, where Harry saw a stack of presents.

"Wow," said Harry looking at all of the presents. Over the past few years he had gotten presents from his friends in the wizarding world, but nothing to this extreme.

"Well, are you going to stare at them, or what?" Asked Ron.

Harry began to open his presents. From Ron he got a whole lot of Chocolate Frogs, from Fred and George, he got a box full of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes merchandise.

"I didn't see anything," said Dumbledore, as Harry thanked Fred and George.

Hermione gave him a book titled _Anamagi for Dummies_, Tonks, Kingsley, and all the aurors gave him a complete set of auror training books. Mad-Eye gave him a trunk like his, with several compartments. "It's got a state of the art security system. It will only recognize you, and doesn't require a key. Just touch the number of the compartment you want to open."

Finally, all that was left was a package and a letter. The package was from Dumbledore, and he opened that first. Inside was a pensive, just like the one in Dumbledore's office.

"Harry, I think you'll find that using a pensive to store your thoughts will keep them organized better, and will help remove some of the pain that you feel for Sirius," Dumbledore said.

"Thank you," said Harry, looking up at the old wizard in awe. He knew that pensives were extremely rare, and had no idea how Dumbledore managed to get his hands on a second one.

The last thing that he had to open was an envelope, which was from Remus. He opened it with shaking hands. Two pieces of parchment fell into his hand.

"Sirius left the blank one on his desk, and told me that if something happened to him, that you were to tap it twice with your wand on your sixteenth birthday."

Harry carefully set that aside, and began to read the second one.

_Dear Harry,_

_I know that no amount of gold in the world could replace the grief that you are feeling for Sirius now. Don't try to mask it; your eyes give you away. I want you to know that I am now your legal guardian in the magical world. _

_Instead of purchasing you a present, I have a collection of memories that I would like to share with you, in hopes that it will ease the pain of Sirius's death. I doubt the others would approve. Molly will be taking the others to Diagon Alley today, and if you stay here, I can give it to you._

_Your Guardian,_

Remus Lupin

Harry thanked Remus, ignoring the curious looks he received from the others.

"Harry, I want to tell you that you'll be starting your summer training tomorrow. You'll take Potions with Tonks, Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, Charms with Professor Flitwick, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Remus, Anamagi lessons with Professor McGonagall, and Occulmency and other lessons with me." Dumbledore reminded him.

"Thank you for everything," Harry said.

"Well, we must be off, "said Dumbledore, as he left the house with the others, leaving only Remus, Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and the Trio.

Mrs. Weasley decided to take the others to Diagon Alley for a bit to get some books, but Harry declined the offer, deciding to stay at Grimmauld place with Remus. After they left, Remus and Harry walked into Remus's bedroom, and sat down on the bed. Silently, Remus pulled a huge book out from under the bed. "_Effingo Totus,_" Said Remus, and a second book appeared next to the original. "It has spells on it, so the regular copying spell wouldn't work. This is the Marauder's Handbook. We wrote it in our seventh year at Hogwarts. It includes the spells used to create the map, How we became anamagi, and It has been updated to the present. It contains the life story of the Marauders, complete with photographs, pranks, and everything we did."

"Thank you so much...I don't know how to repay you. This is the best present I've ever received," said Harry, tears forming in his eyes.

"Now do you want to try the parchment?"

Harry managed a weak grin. "Here goes." He tapped it twice.

It felt like he was getting sucked into a black hole. Back in Grimmauld place, Remus smiled as he saw Harry close his eyes and lean back in his chair. Harry was falling, and then suddenly, he found himself in a living room, sitting across from two people. He gasped.

"Mum? Dad?" He asked.

"Yes, Harry. I'm your father, and this is your mother, Lilly." his dad answered.

"We only have fifteen minutes," said his mum.

"We're dead, but we're happy here. We're sorry that you had to be raised by the Dursleys, but it was what kept you alive for the past few years. I'm sure that Dumbledore's told you the prophesy by now."

"That's what is allowing us to talk to you know. Even the realm of the dead has to bend to the Fates. There are two powers that you have that Voldemort doesn't know about."

"The first is love, but the second is something else. You have power. The Potter family is descended from Merlin. All Potters have been able to do some wandless magic, teleportation, which is basically silent apparition, that is unaffected by most wards, do a few other things that you will learn about. Dumbledore will teach you wandless magic if you ask him, because he is one of the only other wizards who can do it."

"We want to let you know that we love you, and that we're proud of you."

"Remember, we're happy here, although we wish we could have been the ones to raise you. Death really is the next great adventure. Don't be afraid of it."

"It's time for us to go now. We love you, and are very proud of you."

Harry hugged his parents for the first time that he could ever remember, and everything faded away. When he opened his eyes, he was sitting in his desk chair, with the charmed parchment in front of him. He decided to save it, so it filed it in one of his desk drawers.

Even though was only 6:00, Harry went to bed early, ready to begin his training for the rest of the summer.

* * *

Please Review!

**Review Responses: **

**Luckyfiddler:** Thank you!

**Milky Neon:** Thank you for your review. Don't worry... I'll continue this fanfic until it's finished. I may not update often, but I'll try to get one out at least every month.

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**Next Update: **Sometime before September 14th 


	4. Summer Training at Grimmauld Place

**Chapter Three: Summer Training at Grimmauld Place**

Harry woke up to find Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye in his face. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Harry jumped out of bed, and fell on the floor in a tangled pile of blankets. "Gotcha," said Moody.

"Don't scare me," said Harry crossly. His heart was still beating fast from the incident. It's not every day you wake up to that big blue eye right in your face.

Moody left, laughing about how easy it had been to scare Harry. Harry got up, and walked downstairs to the kitchen. In the kitchen, he found Tonks, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Moody, Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione.

"Good morning, Harry," said Dumbledore. "As you know, we will be volunteering our time this summer to train you for the final battle. Instead of having a schedule like that at Hogwarts, you three will do Potions with Tonks on Monday. On Tuesday, you'll have Charms with Professor Flitwick, on Wednesday, you will have animagi lessons and Transfiguration with McGonagall, on Thursday, Ron will study Occulmency with Tonks, while I work with Harry on certain things. Finally, on Friday, Remus, will work on physical training with you."

"Thank you, sir, but what about Hermione?" Harry asked.

"I don't get to see my parents much anymore, so I'll be spending the rest of the summer with them, but I will work on animagi training on my own," Hermione replied.

Dumbledore handed her a snicker's wrapper, and she disappeared.

"Anyways," Tonks interrupted, "Today is Monday, and it's all ready 8:00, so it's time to get started."

"How will we do everything in only four sessions of each class?" Asked Harry.

"I will be putting a time spell on the Drawing Room, so that an hour in there is a minute out here.

Potions with Tonks was a lot better than potions with Snape. Tonks wasn't always breathing down his neck, and she was a lot more patient. Even though he would never admit it, even Ron seemed to enjoy the subject.

"Today, we'll start with Veritaserum, then move on to healing potions, and poisons. This will be an abbreviated NEWT level course, and by the time it's over, you should be able to pass your NEWT."

"What if I didn't get an O on my OWLS?" Harry asked.

"That reminds me," Tonks said, tripping over the carpet as she darted across the room. Here are your OWL results. All mail coming into Grimmauld Place is magically scanned, and there is a two week delay to let spells wear off."

She handed him and Ron a think envelope bearing an official looking seal. "You first," he told Ron.

**OWL Results for Ronald B. Weasley **

Transfiguration: E

Herbology: E

Potions: A

Astronomy: A

Charms: E

Defense Against the Dark Arts: O

History of Magic: T

Divination: D

Care of Magical Creatures: O

Total: 7 OWLS

"I got seven OWLS, and an A in potions, so I guess I can't become an auror anymore," said Ron with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Congratulations, " said Tonks and Harry at the same time.

"Just because you don't take the class doesn't mean you can't sit in on the NEWT," Tonks said. "If you work hard here, you should be able to pass your potions NEWT at the start of your 6th year."

"Wicked," said Ron. "What did you get Harry?"

**OWL Results for Harry J. Potter **

Transfiguration: O

Herbology: E

Potions: E

Astronomy: A

Charms: E

Defense Against the Dark Arts: O Star

History of Magic: T

Divination: A

Care of Magical Creatures: O

_An O star is the Highest grade ever recorded: 150 percent_.

Total: 7 OWLS

"Wow, "said Ron. "Eight OWLS, and one O!"

"Did you know your mum got an O Star in Charms, and your dad got one in Transfiguration? It must run in the family." Tonks said.

"I can't believe that I passed Divination. Maybe predicting my own death is all there is to it."

Tonks laughed. "Anyways, we had best start our lesson for today."

She started by teaching them how to remember which ingredients. Instead of the way Snape taught, she told them short little rhymes, and acronyms to remember ingredients, time, and what not to do. They worked steadily until 7:30 PM outside time, stopping only for meals. By the end of the day, they each had a huge cauldron of veritaserum simmering over the fire. It would have to simmer for 30 days inside time, or twelve hours outside time, and then they would cast a spell on it, and let it cool. Then they could test it, and if it worked, Tonks would let them divide it into small containers and keep it.

They left the Drawing Room, and went off to their rooms, after what felt like (and actually was) thirty days, after telling Ron goodnight, Harry sat down at his desk, and filed away his notes for the day, and began to read his Marauder's Handbook. By eight o'clock, he fell asleep, exhausted. There were spells on the drawing room that kept him from falling asleep.

The next morning, Harry awoke, feeling wide awake, and ready for another day. There was an odd feeling of power beneath his skin, and went into his bathroom for a shower. He showered, and walked down to the kitchen, and made some breakfast. No one was up yet, so he sat down and began to eat.

Ten minutes later, Ron walked in, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Mornin' Harry" He muttered, and began to eat his breakfast.

"Good Morning, Ron" Harry replied. "I see you're wide awake today."

They were interrupted a few minutes later by the squeaky voice of Professor Flitwick. "Good morning, boys. Please follow me to the drawing room."

They got up, and following the vertically challenged professor to the Drawing Room.

"What we will be doing in this class is stuff far beyond NEWT level. We will start with a very special charm today. The Unplotttable charm doesn't require a lot of power to do, but the more powerful the wizard, the more area it can cover at once. This house is already protected by the charm, so we will have to portkey somewhere else to do it. I assume you know what the charm does, by the way. We have to work fast to do the rest of the day's lesson." he squeaked.

"Doesn't it prevent a building from showing up on a map?" Asked Ron.

"Bravo," Flitwick said. A clock chimed 8:30.

"The incantation is _nusquam perscribo_, but like many complex charms, it requires a lot of focus. Every square inch of the foundation must be covered. It's easy to see where you've hit and missed, because the stones will glow purple for a few days after getting hit. Emotions are the most powerful thing in magic. Think of the most meaningful thing in your life when you cast the charm, to put more power behind the spell, so you can cover a wider area. It's time for us to be off, so grab this portkey here," Flitwick said, fumbling in his robes.

They grabbed the portkey, and reappeared next to a very familiar house.

We're going to make the Burrow unplottable?" Ron asked in disbelief.

They went downstairs, and Flitwick demonstrated on one small section, so they knew what to do. Harry was thinking of the most meaningful thing in his life. He knew, without a doubt that it would be the Marauder's Handbook.

"_Nusquam perscribo,_" Harry yelled, forcing as much power as he could into the spell. A purple light shot out of his wand, and almost half of the foundation glowed purple. Harry collapsed, and sank into unconsciousness.

After reviving Harry, Flitwick showed him what he had done, and told him to sit down and have a drink, while he worked with Ron. Harry walked upstairs, got a glass of water, a wizard map of the area, and waited. After two hours, the Burrow disappeared from the map. Finally, they portkeyed back to Grimmauld Place. They at lunch, and began memorizing spells. They worked until 7:30 outside time that evening, when Flitwick dismissed them for dinner.

After dinner, Harry went to his room, and continued reading the Marauder Handbook. He was almost to the chapter when they created the map, when he fell asleep.

The next day, Harry woke up, eager to see what his animagus form would be. After a quick shower and breakfast, he entered the Drawing Room with Ron. McGonagall, being her strict self, told them how hard this class would be, but when it was done, they could easily pass their NEWTS. They spent the morning learning how to animate objects.

"Animating objects is very complex. It can be useful in battle, because solid objects are the only thing that can stop the killing curse, Clothing obviously won't do anything, nor will dragon hide, but certain metals will deflect or absorb the curse."

"Just like Dumbledore did," Harry muttered.

"What did he do?" McGonagall asked.

"At the Department of Mysteries, he animated the Statue of Magical Brethren to block curses."

"Very powerful wizards can do that. Today, we'll start with the chair. To animate it, you need an incantation, a complex wand movement, and last but not least, you need to focus. Focus on exactly what you want the object to do. If you lose focus before you're done telling it what to do, it will stop. You can tell it to do something until a specific event happens, so you don't need to concentrate on it the whole time. The incantation is _Inanimate Imperio_, and no, it is not unforgivable to use this light side version on inanimate objects. Wizards often animate basic household equipment, such as brooms, cooking utensils, etc."

McGonagall summoned two chairs from across the room, and they set to work. Harry discovered that he had no problem animating the chair, and so he moved on to animating three tables to stop stunners McGonagall fired at him. Ron was right behind him, but he could only animate one statue at a time. Finally, at the end of the Day, around 4:00PM outside time, it was time to find out their animagus forms.

McGonagall went to the kitchen, and returned with two goblets of potion. "Add one hair to this potion, but don't drink it. It's the animagus revealer potion. This takes a year to brew, and has a one month shelf life, but we had it under a time stop spell, so it's still good."

They took the goblets, and added the hairs. Above Ron's goblet, a large German shepherd formed, and above Harry's, an owl appeared, followed by a sleek, black wolf. None of them had any distinctive markings.

"Well, I must say, Mr. Potter, I'm very impressed. There hasn't been a multi-magus since Dumbledore."

"Wicked, "said Ron.

Talking about their forms, they walked to the kitchen, ate dinner, and went up to their rooms. Once again, Harry opened the Marauder's handbook to the chapter where they created the map. Harry scanned over it, memorizing the spells required to do that, and trying to figure out how the Marauders had learned those spells. He then decided to make a map of Grimmauld place, but he had a much better idea. He would create a multi-sectioned map, that would show where each member of the order was at all times, their status, and who was around them. He found a huge piece of parchment on his desk, and began to enchant it. Finally, at midnight, he finished it. Tomorrow, each member would need to put one drop of blood in each square. He also added a privacy feature that would be activated when the member was in Grimmauld place, their house, or Hogwarts.

The next morning, Harry woke up, felling refreshed. He looked at the clock. It was 8:30AM outside time—he was late. He hurriedly showered and dressed, and rushed downstairs to find Dumbledore eating breakfast in the kitchen.

"Good morning, Harry." Dumbledore said. "Did you get a good night's sleep?"

"I did, thank you, professor"

"Anyways, over the next month, we will work on teleportation, occulmency, leglilmency, wandless magic, creating portkeys, and whatever else comes up. Today, let's start with teleportation. Teleportation appears to be silent apparition, but there are no know wards that can prevent one from teleporting anywhere. I trust you will not abuse this power when you get back to Hogwarts."

"No guarantees," Harry said.

"I could have expected as much. Your father was exactly the same. He avoided many a detention by teleporting out. Anyways, the key to teleportation is imagining yourself somewhere else."

"I think I may have done this before, back when I was younger. Once, I ended up on the roof of the school."

"You may have. I know your father learned to teleport over the summer between his first and second years."

Dumbledore spent the next few hours (drawing room time) going over the theory behind teleportation. He said that like apparition, it required a spell to do it the first time, but not after the first time. Harry was able to teleport anywhere in Grimmauld place before lunch. After lunch, Dumbledore told him to teleport to Hogwarts, and get the eagle quill off of his desk. The distance made it a bit harder to teleport, but he was still able to do it, although the first time, he landed outside the gargoyles, instead of in the office. The trip back to Grimmauld place was a lot easier.

After that final teleportation exam, Harry learned the theory behind portkeys, and anti-portkey wards. "It requires an incantation, a wand movement, and focused thoughts on what the portkey will do, such as where it will go, how it will activate, how many times will it be used, etc. The incantation is _Portus_, and the wand movement is a triangle, like this."

Dumbledore demonstrated how to make a portkey, and Harry gave it a shot. By the end of the day outside time, he could create a portkey to do just about anything, and had just about mastered occulmency. He walked into the kitchen, to find Ron eating some dinner. He sat down with him.

"Huwashurde," said Ron.

"Excuse me, but what does 'Huwashurde' mean?" Asked Harry.

Ron swallowed. "How was your day?" He asked.

"Great! I can teleport just about anywhere and take one passenger and two trunks. How was _your_ day?"

"It was ok, I still can't keep Tonks out of my mind, but at least I can knock her out with my wand."

They chatted happily about their day, then walked upstairs. Harry did his occulmency exercises, and went to bed early, knowing that he would have physical training tomorrow.

On Friday morning, Harry awoke at seven o'clock outside time, and walked downstairs. He found Remus in the kitchen, sipping on some tea. Ron walked up behind him, and sat down at the table.

"Good morning, Harry, Ron. We won't be using the drawing room, so I guess I'll brief you in here over some breakfast. On Friday's, you two will be working with me on physical training. We will cover basic kung-fu, a bit of fencing, and how to integrate magical and muggle dueling. We will also cover magical survival skills. Every day, you will need to work out—"

"Every Day?" Ron asked.

"Yes Ron, From seven o'clock in the morning to seven thirty in Drawing Room time, you will run laps, do pull-ups, sit-ups, and lift weights. By building your physical strength, you will increase your magical strength as well. "

"Where will we run," Harry asked.

"Good question." Remus replied. "We can't run around here, so we would have to do it around Hogwarts. We will use the room of requirement, since it can handle the time difference. Harry can teleport there, but Ron and I will take a portkey. We should be off now, so Ron, grab this portkey, Harry, meet us there."

Harry teleported to the room of requirement, and shortly afterwards, Remus and Ron activated their portkey and joined him.

That day was very strenuous. The time spell kept them from getting too tired. They ran almost ten miles, and started a weight lifting program. It felt like almost a month in each day, and by the end of it, Harry was in considerable better shape. Now, each day, he would work out for a little more than a day inside the room, but it would only be half an hour outside the room.

On Saturday morning, Harry woke up and dressed in his red and gold robes. Today was a special day, because Dumbledore had decided to take Harry to the ministry for a special surprise. "With the ongoing war, the minister feels it is necessary for people who are capable of creating portkeys should be able to do so without registering them," he had said two days ago.

They teleported to the visitor entrance, and dialed 62442, which Harry noted this time spelled magic. "Welcome to the ministry of magic. Please state your name and your business."

"Albus Dumbledore, chief warlock on the wizengamot is escorting Harry Potter to a portkey creation exam."

A single badge fell out of the change report, which said Harry Potter – Portkey Exam. Dumbledore explained, "Since I'm on the wizengamot, I don't need a badge."

"Please register your wand with the security booth inside the atrium." The booth said.

They were lowered down into the ministry. Harry's heart jumped, as he saw the place where Voldemort had lured him last year. They walked over to the security booth, where the guard was sound asleep. Harry revived the man with his wand, and the man, who was very embarrassed, took Harry's wand. "Eleven Inches, Holly, Phoenix Feather, been in use for almost six years?"

"That's correct."

"Wait a minute. You're Harry—"

"Quiet," said Dumbledore, escorting Harry to the lift. They went to the Department of Magical Transportation, where they met Basil Prewett.

"I think I've met you before," said Harry. "Were you working with the incoming crowds at the Quidditch World Cup?"

"Yes, I was," said Basil, pleased that Harry had recognized him. "Anyways, if you can create a portkey, this test won't be hard at all. All you need to do, is make me three portkeys," said Basil, handing Harry three pieces of metal. "I need one to go across the room, and activate at, 10:30, which is about five minutes away."

"_Portus_," said Harry, moving his wand in a triangle. The metal glowed blue for a few seconds.

"Amazing," said Basil. They grabbed the portkey, and waited. At exactly 10:30, they appeared in the circle across the room.

"Next, you will need to create a portkey to the Leaky Cauldron and back, which activates when three people touch it," Basil said, glancing at Dumbledore, who nodded. Harry figured it was for security reasons.

"_Portus,_" said Harry. Once again, the second metal chip glowed blue, Harry and Basil grabbed it. A few seconds later, Dumbledore touched it, and they appeared in the Leaky Cauldron.

They picked up the portkey again, and reappeared back in the testing room. "Finally," said Basil, "you need to make a portkey that takes us to location depicted in this picture, that activates any way you want." Basil held up a picture of a beach somewhere.

Harry decided to make this portkey special. It would activate when he touched it. "_Portus_," he said again. The metal disk glowed blue, and Basil picked it up, Dumbledore grabbed it, knowing what kind of portkey had been created. They appeared on the beach, and portkeyed back to the ministry.

"Excellent Job, Mr. Potter," said Basil, handing him a small card. "Here's your license. Once you sign it, it will come active, and will laminate itself. I need to go do an apparition exam." he said, and walked out of the room.

Harry read the license. It had his name on it, and information about his wand. On the back it had the rules for creating portkeys, which basically prevented them from being left where muggles could accidentally pick them up. At two o'clock, Harry teleported back to his room at Grimmauld place.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Harry trained hard. By the end of August, he could easily pass his NEWTS. He had mastered wandless magic, occulmency, invisibility without a cloak, and could transform into either of his animagi forms as well. He had learned hundreds of charms, and surprisingly remembered them all. He could fell the magic below his skin, pouring through his veins. On August 31st, He packed his new trunk with all of his school supplies, and a foe glass, but left his most important possessions, like his invisibility cloak, marauders handbook, and the map at Grimmauld place. He knew he could easily teleport to Grimmauld place and back if he needed anything. At ten o'clock, he went to bed, excited about going back to Hogwarts, and the fact that he could probably be better than Hermione in their classes.

* * *

Please Review!  
**Review Responses**

**Milky Neon** - Thank you for all of your reviews. I hope you like the length of this chapter: Over 3,000 words is a lot more than I normally write for school ;-)

**captain-alex-obvious** - Thank you. I'll try to update at least every two weeks. I just started high school, so I have a lot of homework, and it's hard to find time for writing.

**Egyptian Flame** - Thank you. I really like your fanfic, Drastic Measures. I don't realistically think Harry will try to kill himself, but I am glad that he doesn't die. I don't really like a manuplitive Dumbledore, but I can't make Harry have a major dissagrement with him in my fanfic because it will mess up the plot a bit.

* * *

**Next Update:** Sometime before September 19th, but check my profile for updates on where I am. 


	5. Back to Hogwarts

**Chapter Four: Aboard the Hogwarts Express **

On September 1st, Harry woke up with a start. He had had another dream about a phoenix. He knew that it wasn't Voldemort sending these visions, because he had mastered occulmency, and because the phoenix song would be fatal to him. Why was this one phoenix invading his dreams? The phoenix looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he had seen it before.

Harry got up, and stumbled into bathroom to take a quick shower. Feeling much more alert, he put on his Hogwarts uniform, shrunk his trunk, released Hedwig, and ventured downstairs. When he got to the kitchen, he found himself looking at a strange girl, about his age.

"Wotcher, Harry," the girl greeted, tripping over the chair as she walked over to the stove. "Are you ready for school?"

"Mornin' Tonks," replied, instantly recognizing the clumsy auror. "I'm as ready as I will be. At least now, I won't stutter like an idiot when Snape asks me a question."

"How's my disguise? And how did you recognize me?" Asked Tonks.

"I think the way the chair seemed to hop into your path was a dead giveaway."

"Anyways, I have two orders of business today. First, you need to wear this at all times," she said, throwing him a box. Harry opened it, and discovered that it was a wand holster, made out of dragon hide and demiguise fur. It prevented the wand from being summoned, and was invisible to everyone but the person it was strapped to.

"Thank you," said Harry, looking up, or rather down, at her.

"It's not from me—it's from Dumbledore. He said that you would know the limits of wandless magic, so I won't bore you with that, but you should have your wand on you at all times, as well as an emergency portkey. To draw your wand, just imagine it coming to your hand, and with a flick of your wrist, is should come right out. Otherwise, it will stay in the holster."

Harry clipped the wand into his holster, and mounted his holster to his upper arm. It would also be mountable on his back, at his waist, or on his leg, but he decided to try it on his arm first. After that was taken care of, and he was getting breakfast, Ron walked in.

"Good morning, Harry and..." Ron trailed off.

"I've been teaching you potions all summer, and you can't even recognize me?" Tonks asked.

"Oh, Good morning Tonks. What's the disguise for?" Ron asked, noticing that she was a few inches shorter than usual, and was wearing Gryffindor school robes.

"I'm going to be riding the Hogwarts Express with you two, just to make sure nothing happens. No sense in alerting any potential death eaters that there will be aurors on the train. Also, I'm sure Harry is going to kill me for this, but I have been assigned to oversee his quidditch practices."

They ate a quick breakfast, and before long, it was time to go to platform nine and three quarters. Ginny, Ron, and Tonks would take a portkey when they got the signal from Mad-Eye. Harry would teleport there, and meet the others in the last compartment on the train. With a swish of his robes, Harry found himself behind the magical gateway at platform nine and three quarters.

"Watch out for that one, "muttered a disembodied voice belonging to Mad-Eye, who was under an invisibility cloak. "He's up to no good."

Harry looked up towards the front of the track, to see Draco Malfoy saying goodbye to his mother, with Crabbe and Goyle right behind him. Harry decided to climb on the train finally, because of Mad-Eye's constant muttering about security. Ron and Hermione were sitting in that compartment with Tonks, Once inside, Moody decided to go back to Grimmauld place, and with the words "Constant Vigilance," he was gone.

They spent to train ride talking about what the upcoming school year would be like. Hermione had studied a lot of theory over the summer, and with a few hours in the room of requirement, she would be up to speed with the rest of them. Tonks entertained them on the train ride by telling them about the dumbest criminals she had arrested.

"So anyways, Kingsley and I are sneaking up on the guy, and I tripped over a log. The guy turns around and asks me if I am his master. I quickly morph into the best Voldemort impression that I can make, since I haven't seen him. I tell him 'Of course I am, you idiot,' and he kisses the hem of my robes. I stunned him right there, and took him to Azkaban. As I left his cell, he was still worshiping me."

They all shared a good laugh over this. The train was traveling through the countryside now, and it was starting to get a little cloudy outside. After ten minutes, it was almost black outside, and streaks of lightning illuminated the mountains.

"Looks like we have a big storm brewing here," said Tonks, looking out the window.

"I hope the train makes it through all right," said Harry.

"It will. This is a magical train. It can't be affected by the weather at all."

At that very moment, the lights in the compartment went out. There was the sound of tortured metal, and the train was thrown over onto its side. It was completely black inside the compartment. Harry gingerly stood up, rubbing his head. He was going to have one heck of a headache tomorrow.

With a flick of his wrist, his wand flew into his hand. "_Lumos_," he said, and the compartment was filled with light. Tonks lay on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the head. Ron and Hermione were quickly awake from the light, and both drew their own wands. Harry administered a quick healing spell, which slowed the flow of blood from the gash in the auror's head.

"Let's see what's going on, "Hermione said.

"_Alohamora," _said Ron, pointing his wand at the door. The doorknob glowed green, and a puff of smoke appeared, forming the dark mark. The smoke quickly dissipated. "How do we get out of here?" he asked.

"I don't know, Harry replied, looking at the windows, to find they had been blacked out. "_Evanesco_," he said, remembering what had happened at the zoo. The spell bounced harmlessly off the wall, and dissipated.

Suddenly, Hermione said "Fracta spells on the count of three. One Two Three. _Fracta_!"

Three bursts of blue light shot out of their wands, and hit the wall of the train. The combined force of the spells was enough to break through the wards set on the train by death eaters. The entire wall (or ceiling, depending on how you were standing) blew apart, and pieces of metal flew into the death eaters who were standing guard.

"_Portus_," said Harry, forcing a portkey into Ron and Hermione's hands. They instantly disappeared. He didn't want them to get injured in this battle. "Hey, Bella," he shouted to the killer of his godfather.

"How did you get out here? _Avada Kedavra._" She was screaming in rage. Some of the students, who were being marched out of the train now gasped.

With a wave of his wand, a fragment of wreckage flew into the path of the spell, completely blowing up in the process. White-hot fragments of metal rained down on the two of them. Sighs of relief were heard from the Hogwarts students. Harry decided to retaliate. "_Pridem Dormio_," Harry whispered. This was a charm that was unblockable except my one spell, and Bellatrix only cast a standard blocking spell. His curse shot right through her shield, and she fell to the ground. One death eater down, many to go.

Harry fought for about ten minutes, before Fawkes showed up and disappeared just as fast in a flash of blue flames. Harry had stunned five death eaters, and put the sleeping spell on them, when Dumbledore, accompanied by a force of almost twenty aurors, and a ton of normal ministry law enforcement agents, the tables were quickly turned. Upon their arrival, they cast anti-apparition wards, so the Death Eaters couldn't escape. In less than five minutes, all of the Death Eaters were in a pile on the ground, in magical handcuffs, which prevented animagus and metamorphmagus transformations, magic, and apparition from being used by the person in the cuffs.

"Where's Tonks," Dumbledore asked, breaking free of the aurors and walking over to Harry.

"She's unconscious. Follow me." Harry replied.

Dumbledore followed Harry down the tracks until they reached the last car. When they walked through the hole the trio had blasted, Dumbledore took one look at her, and made a portkey to take her to St. Mungo's.

"Go take her to St. Mungo's, and I'll get the students to Hogwarts." Said Dumbledore.

With a familiar jerk at the navel, Harry disappeared with Tonks. They instantly appeared in a very familiar room at St. Mungos. The lobby was a mess. Dozens of students were in there. Harry walked up to the desk.

"I need a healer," he said. "She's in critical condition," he added, motioning to Tonks.

In 30 seconds, a healer in lime green robes showed up, and Harry followed him, levitating Tonks behind him. The healer led him down a hallway, into a wing of St. Mungos that wasn't listed on the map.

"Mr. Potter. I'm afraid that there is nothing more you can do. Why don't you go join your classmates for the feast? She will live, but it may be a while before she is fully recovered." Said the healer, after two hours.

"Ok, but please firecall Professor Dumbledore or me as soon as anything changes."

"Sure, I can do that."

Harry instantly teleported directly to the doors outside the Great Hall. He didn't want to cause a lot of disruptions by appearing in the Great Hall. He saw the first years coming up the steps behind him. Ignoring all of the stares, he walked to the Gryffindor table, and sat down between Ron and Hermione.

"How's Tonks?" Asked Hermione.

"She's not looking very good now, but the healer says that she'll be fine. Magical medicine is really good." Harry replied.

"I know," said Ron. "Once Dad told me about this muggle who actually died from the Flu. Can you believe that? Here Madam Pomfrey can give you a potion, and you will be better in five minutes."

Hermione opened her mouth, but at that time the hall quieted down. McGonagall was leading a group of scared looking first years in. The hat was set on the stool, and described the houses. This was the first year that it didn't sing. In total, Gryffindor got 7 new students, Ravenclaw got 5, Hufflepuff got 6, and Slythern got 8.

Dumbledore stood up. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. First years should know that the Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits. All students should note that there is a 10:30 curfew in effect, because of the increased threat of Lord Voldemort. He attacked the train, and who knows what will happen next. On a lighter note, I am pleased to announce the return of Professor Lupin as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry Potter will be filling in for him at the full moon. Nomel Spord."

Food appeared, and they ate, while discussing the attack on Hogwarts. After the feast, the fifth year students took the first years to the feast, and the Trio followed Dumbledore to his office. However, by the time they got to it, the Gargoyles had already closed.

"Start naming candies." Said Harry.

"What?" Asked Hermione.

"Chocolate Frog," said Ron.

"Lemon Drop"

"Sherbet Lemon"

"Mars Bars"

"Skiving Snackboxes?"

The gargoyles jumped aside. "Skiving Snackboxes?" Hermione asked, shaking her head.

They ascended the chairs. "Come in," said Dumbledore. "It was most amusing watching you attempting to gain entrance to my office. Skiving Snackboxes are very useful for the boring staff meetings. I need to stock up on them, he said, jotting something down on a sheet of parchment."

"Anyways, Professor Dumbledore, We were wondering if there was any way that we could take all of our NEWTS this year."

"We know that this would require a lot of work outside of classes, but there's always the room of requirement, where we can put up a time spell, if needed."

"I think that you should have no problem with arranging that. You have my permission to be out after the curfew, not that you need it, being an assistant professor." he said, nodding to Harry. "We never sent your Hogwarts letters, because you all ready had all of your books."

"You can add and subtract points, as well as assign detentions at all times, not just when you are teaching, but I ask you to be fair about it. Ron, you are still prefect, and the other prefect is obviously still Hermione. There will be a prefect meeting tomorrow morning, since the one on the train never happened."

"Thank you," said Harry.

"Now, for your NEWTS. Ron and Harry, you will take Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration over the Christmas break, so you might want to keep in practice. Tonks has agreed to prepare you for this in the Room of Requirement with the usual time spell, Friday at 7:00 until 10:00 outside time. You will take the rest of your NEWTS again at the end of the year. This year, you three will be taking classes with the seventh years. Even though you all can easily do all of the spells, I ask that you pretend to have some difficulty, so Voldemort's spies don't' get too suspicious."

"Thank you, sir." Said Harry. "Is there any way that I could take the Muggle Studies OWL and NEWT?"

"I'm sure that could be arranged. That may be helpful for applying to become an auror. You will need to know how to communicate with muggles. Anyways, I need to go buy some Lemon Drops before the store closes. Before, I go, Harry, here is your assistant Professor badge. The curfew doesn't apply to any of you. I believe your father liked that particular advantage when he was Head Boy."

The Trio stifled a laugh at Dumbledore's addiction to Lemon Drops.

"Thank you," said Harry and Hermione at the same time. "Well, I hope you make it on time," Said Hermione, trying hard not to laugh.

Dumbledore disappeared with a swish of his cloak. Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked down the steps. It was past curfew, and they decided to patrol the halls for a while and talk. As they passed the entrance hall, they heard voices. Harry threw his invisibility clock to Hermione and Ron, and became invisible himself. They walked into the room. In the middle was Vincent Crabbe, and he was talking to a man in a black cloak.

"Light Charms on three. One, Two, Three." Said Harry.

"_Lumos Solaris," _They whispered. The combined light illuminated the massive hall. The cloaked figure started to run, but he saw a stunning spell flying at him. He began to duel to Harry. They fought like crazy. Spells basted holes in the wall, and neither one showed signs of giving up. Crabbe was trying to escape, but Ron and Hermione stunned him, and joined Harry. Finally, Harry fired four spells in rapid succession confusing the cloaked figure, "_Expecto Patronum Stupefy Dormio Flippendo._" A silver stag erupted from his wand, masking the other spells. The cloaked figure never had a chance. He was stunned, and blasted into a wall. He fell to the ground.

Snape emerged from the shadows. "Just what are you doing?"

He found three wands in his face. "For your information, I'm now an assistant professor, Hermione and Ron are Prefects. We are allowed to be out after curfew, and we just caught one of your students out after curfew, conversing with a cloaked stranger in the entrance hall, who didn't have a visitor badge."

"Well, if that's the case, why the mess?"

"He was conversing with a cloaked figure, who we now know is a Death Eater."

"Prove it." Snape Sneered.

Harry withdrew a bottle of veritaserum, and put three drops in Crabbe's mouth. Snape looked like he was about to have a heart attack, after seeing Harry armed with veritaserum.

"What's your name?"

"Vincent Lucius Crabbe."

"Who were you talking with?"

"I have no idea. My father told me to meet some one down here at 11:30."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No, but I plan to become one someday."

Harry administered an antidote. "Is that enough for you," He asked Snape. "This is a matter for the Headmaster. _Portus_, he said, pointing his wand at a piece of wreckage.

"Now let's get this cleaned up. Dobby," Harry called. With a loud crack, Dobby appeared.

"Yes Harry Potter Sir," the elf said excitedly.

"Would you please get this cleaned up tonight? If you can work it into your schedule, I will get you a lot of socks, so you can mix and match."

"Thank you Harry Potter sir. You is being too kind."

The Trio, Crabbe, Snape, and the Prisoner grabbed the portkey, and reappeared in Dumbledore's office. Snape even looked mildly impressed at Harry for making a portkey, before his face returned to its usual sneer. Ten minutes later, Dumbledore appeared, with a giant bank of Lemon Drops over his shoulder.

"What brings such an unlikely group to my office?" Dumbledore asked.

The Trio explained what they had found. They interrogated Crabbe again, then decided to find out who the cloaked figure was a Death Eater. They called the Ministry, and Dumbledore told the auror who arrived that Harry had dueled him. The auror said that he would put in a recommendation for Harry to become an auror. Dumbledore sent them to bed, advising them that they would be able to skip the first day of classes, just fine, and that when they woke up, they were to go straight to his office. Finally, at seven in the morning, they stumbled through the portrait. Hermione walked up the girl's staircase, and Harry and Ron walked up the boy's staircase. When they got there, their dorm mates were up, and asked what had happened. They briefly told them before falling asleep in their robes.

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**Review Responses:**

**Milky Neon: **Thanks for catching a little error. Harry got 8 OWLS, and Ron got 7. I was copying and pasting, so I guess I completely forgot to change that number at the bottom. I've added it to my to-do list, and it will be fixed sometime. I'm kinda doing this outside my schoolwork, because I have to keep my grades up, so I generally have to write this in the evenings. That's why there are so many typos...As always, Thanks for reviewing.

**Egyptian Flame: **Thank you for reviewing. Remember that they are in a room with a time spell, so one day outside is almost a month inside. I needed for Harry to do a lot of training over the summer, but didn't like the idea of time turners, because 25 Harry's is the last thing we need. ;-). I decided to invent (?) a time spell, which would change the way time flows in a room. This won't be a super-power Harry story, and his wandless magic will be limited, but he will be more powerful than Dumbledore.

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**Next Update: **Before September 29. Please check my profile for updates.


	6. Boggarts and Werewolves

**Important Note:** I have made some changes to the previous chapter. Please re-read it before continuing the story.

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**Chapter Five: Boggarts and Werewolves **

Harry woke up to find daylight streaming through an open window. Ron was in the bed next to him, still sound asleep, but the other boys were gone from the dormitory. He looked at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, and noted that the clock read 1:00PM. He got dressed, and walked over to Ron's bed.

"Wake Up, Ron. It's one in the afternoon."

"Whassat? Goway," Ron muttered sleepily.

"Ron, it's time to get up. We need to go meet Dumbledore."

"Ok, Ok, I'm coming." Ron rolled over, and fell out of his bed. After they took five-minute showers in the shower room, which was at the bottom of the boys tower, they went down into the common room.

"Where's Hermione?" Asked Ron.

"I don't know. She's probably getting ready by now." replied Harry.

They began to play a game of exploding snap, waiting for Hermione to arrive. At one thirty, she walked down the stairs.

"I can't believe I slept that late," Hermione said. She looked well rested, considering that she had gone to bed as the other students were waking up.

"I was amazed when I saw the clock." Harry agreed.

They began to walk to Dumbledore's office, and arrived there fairly fast. The stairways seemed to be in a good mood today, because the first one they got to took them straight to Dumbledore's office.

"Skiving Snackboxes," Harry said to the gargoyle. They stepped onto the moving staircase, and knocked on the door. Dumbledore called them inside, and they sat down.

"I'm glad to see that you are well rested." Dumbledore began. "I have been thinking about your schedule, and decided that you should continue spending time with Tonks in the evening. Because of the time spell the Room of Requirement provides, you will have no problem finishing your homework, as well as preparing for your NEWTS."

"What about our normal classes?" Hermione asked.

"For now, you will remain in some of those classes. Since you were not at breakfast, you haven't seen your schedules yet." Dumbledore said, handing them each their schedule.

Their schedule was fairly typical, but there were a few major changes. In the morning, was physical training, in the Room of Requirement, with Remus. In the afternoon, Ron and Hermione had apparition and portkey lessons with Dumbledore. At night, they all had NEWT preparation with Tonks in the Room of Requirement.

Dumbledore surveyed them as they read over their schedules. "When Professor Lupin is occupied, Harry, you will skip all of your classes except for your special training."

"What about the level of the classes?" Ron asked. "Won't a lot of the stuff be too easy for us?"

"Yes, after your summer training, a lot of it will, but you should at least pretend to have some trouble."

"I guess that's because V-Voldemort will have spies at Hogwarts, trying to see how much we know." Hermione said.

"Exactly," said Dumbledore. "The prefect meeting will be at three thirty, after most classes have let out. Harry, you should meet me here to go over your responsibilities as a part-time professor. Anyways, you three have missed breakfast and lunch, so I bet you're starved. I trust you can find your way to the kitchens." Said Dumbledore, with a smile on his face.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron all looked at each other. Dumbledore laughed, and they walked down the stairs towards the kitchen. Before long, they arrived in the room under the Great Hall. After tickling the pear, they stepped into the kitchen.

A waist high blur shot across the room, and collided with Harry, nearly knocking him over.

"Mr. Harry Potter, Sir. I is being so honored that you has come to visit Dobby. What can I do for you? Are you hungry after last night?"

"Dobby," Harry said, "please call me Harry, and yes, if you wouldn't mind, we would like some lunch. Why don't you eat with us?"

"I would be honored. Harry Potter is being such a great wizard." Dobby snapped his fingers, and a table appeared. He scurried to get it set. Since the food was already cooked, in ten minutes, they were enjoying lunch.

"How's freedom?" Hermione asked.

"Freedom is great miss, but many house elves don't want to be free. To many, it is a dishonor."

"Why?"

"House elves exist to serve a master. When most elves have no master to serve, they will go mad."

"Go mad?"

"Yes. The shock of being freed is enough to kill most elves."

"So maybe S.P.E.W. isn't such a good idea."

"Exactly. It is making many of the elves nervous. If an elf wants freedom, Master Dumbledore will give it to them. Many like serving their master. Dumbledore is being a kind master, and many is more than willing to serve him."

They talked about school, and what was happening, until they looked at the clock. It was almost three thirty, and after thanking Dobby and the other elves, they hurried out of the kitchen.

Ron and Hermione ran towards the prefect lounge, and Harry teleported to the staircase just past the gargoyles. He knocked on the door, and entered the circular office.

"Lemon Drop?" asked Dumbledore.

"No thank you," said Harry.

"Down to business, then. The next full moon is coming up on Tuesday. You will be teaching on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning." Dumbledore handed Harry a notebook. "Here is the syllabus for the entire year. It will update itself, and to get the suggested lesson plan, just tap the box for that particular date once with your wand."

"Thank you. Is it required that I follow the lesson plan?" Harry asked.

"Not at all. Feel free to teach any which way you want to, as long as the students learn something."

"Thank you. I don't think that I will make any changes to the first lesson, but that might be good to know for future lessons."

"That's all I have. Any questions?"

"No Sir."

"See you at dinner."

Harry walked back to his dorm. Consulting the notebook Dumbledore had just given him, he saw Remus didn't have any more classes today, and he decided to walk to the Defense classroom to talk to Remus.

After getting lost many times, he finally found the defense classroom. It was just as he had remembered it. A large desk stood at the front of the room, next to the blackboard. Tanks with various magical creatures lined the walls, and various dark detection instruments were on the shelves behind the desk.

"Good afternoon, Harry. I heard about the incident last night. Can't say that I'm surprised. I bet most of the Slytherns will join the dark side."

"Especially Malfoy and company."

"Anyways, I want to show you a few things before I transform. The full moon is tomorrow night, so I only got a few classes in. You will have some of the first classes of the year, so you won't be doing a whole lot."

"I guess I could do Boggarts for the third years," said Harry, motioning to four suitcases, which were on the shelf at the back of the room.

"That makes for an exciting first lesson," Lupin agreed. "By the way, you might want to use the blackboard. There isn't any chalk. To write something, just think about what you want to write, and it will appear. Give it a shot." He motioned to the blackboard

Harry tapped it with his wand. Text started to appear on the board.

_Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business._

_Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git._

_Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a Professor._

_Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball._

Remus started laughing. "That was one of our better ideas. You were lucky I bailed you out then," he laughed. "I wonder if he ever did find out about the map."

"I don't think so. You were very convincing."

They talked for almost two hours, and then it was time for the feast. They walked down to the Great Hall, ignoring the stares that they got on the way. Remus proceeded to the staff table, but Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table with Ron and Hermione.

"How was the meeting?" Harry asked.

"Interesting," said Hermione.

"Boring," said Ron at exactly the same time.

They all laughed. Food appeared on the table, and they began to eat.

"When is your first lesson?" asked Hermione.

"Tomorrow, actually. I have all the third and fourth years."

"Will you do boggarts, like Re—Professor Lupin did for us?"

"Yes, I think so."

After dinner, they headed up to the Room of Requirement, to meet Tonks for their nightly lesson. Since the others were busy, she would be tutoring them in all subjects, every night. While it was only three hours (8:00 to 10:00) outside, inside the room, it was seven and a half days inside. The time spell prevented the people affected by it from getting any more tired than they would normally be, but it was still a bit disorienting.

They spent that session focusing mainly on Hermione's animagus transformation. Her form was a brown owl. Since she had been studying the theory over the summer, and all the important potions were brewed, by the end of the time in the room, she had completed one transformation. After several days in the room, they walked back to the Gryffindor tower. Harry was tired, and he needed to rest before he taught tomorrow.

The next morning, Harry woke up, took a quick shower, and got dressed. Then he headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. A few minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, and they talked about their first lesson with Professor Lupin.

"—and that was so cool when he shot the gum up Peeve's nose," said Ron.

"Remember Neville's boggart? I wonder if Snape still does?" continued Hermione.

"I don't see how he could forget," Harry replied. "I'm going to head up to the classroom, so I'll be there when the others arrive, but I'll see you at lunch."

Harry stood up, and walked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the stares he was receiving from the other students. Once out of the Hall, he began to walk to the classroom. On the way, he came across a painting he had never seen before. There was a phoenix, which had an aura of power surrounding it. It was unlike any phoenix that Harry had seen before. The caption under it read "Protector of the Light." Harry took one more look at it, and then continued to his classroom.

After getting his parchment in order, Harry sat down and waited. A few minutes after the bell rang, students began to file in, many looking nervous.

"Hi, I'm Harry Potter, but I guess most of you probably know that. Please don't call me professor, or anything like that, because I actually am still a student here. Unlike a certain professor we all know," he stared at a bottle of a blue potion, "I do not favor any one house. Now that that's out of the way, we I can take roll."

Harry went through the roll, clearly marking if each student was present, then he tapped it with his wand, as he had seen many teachers do in the past, and watched it disappear. The class had been completely silent, and Harry seemed to grab their attention.

"Does anyone know what a boggart is?" asked Harry.

One of the Ravenclaws raised her hand. "A boggart is a shape-shifter. It will take the form of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."

"Precisely," Harry replied. "Five points to Ravenclaw "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. I believe that this one was discovered in the broom closet on the second floor, by some seventh years who were trying to get away from the crowds."

The class laughed.

"I think they are still in the hospital wing from shock when they discovered the boggart. That is why you need to learn how to defend yourself against a boggart."

"It's always good to work in pairs," said Harry, "because the boggart will get confused. It won't know what to transform into. Any questions so far?"

A third year Hufflepuff raised his hand. "What is your boggart?"

"I honestly don't know. It used to be a dementor, but I haven't faced one for a while. Any more questions?"

No one else raised their hand, so Harry continued. "The charm that is used to repel a boggart is fairly simple. The main ingredient to the charm is force of mind. What really finishes off a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing."

Harry tapped the board with his wand, and the word Riddikulus appeared. "The charm to force the boggart to change shape is Riddikulus. Go ahead, try it without your wands."

"_Riddikulus_," the class echoed.

"Good. Now everyone needs to think about what their worst fear is, and what they can do to it to make it amusing. Who wants to go first?"

A Hufflepuff boy raised his hand.

"Patrick, come up here to the front of the room." Harry said.

The boy got up and walked to the front of the room. Harry summoned a large chest from across the room, which was shaking slightly.

"Are you ready?" asked Harry.

The boy gulped. "I hope so."

"Three, Two, One." With a wave of his wand, the trunk flew open.

Out of the trunk emerged a vampire, with blood dripping from its fangs.

"_Riddikulus_," the boy said.

There was a crack like a whip, and the vampire turned into a bat without wings, which promptly fell to the floor. The Hufflepuff let out a burst of laughter, and the boggart faded slightly. Harry called all of the students up one by one, and they all managed to face the boggart, but the class did need to use three boggarts to get through everyone. Since the last one was still alive, Harry walked up to it to force it back into its container.

Harry was thinking about how a boggart knew what a person's worst fear was. He decided to try to use his occulmency shields to fool the boggart. The boggart morphed into Professor McGonagall, who was telling him that he was expelled from school. She never finished her sentence. With a wave of his wand, the boggart was forced back into the trunk it came out of.

A few members of the class laughed at his boggart. Harry did actually think it was rather funny, but he could have made it even funnier, but having a Boggart-Voldemort dancing the hula in the classroom was not a good idea.

"We only have three minutes left, so I guess I'll give you your homework for next class. Just read the chapter on boggarts, and summarize it on one foot of parchment."

The class packed up, and filed out of the room. With a quick cleaning charm, all the spilled ink and scraps of parchment were gone, and Harry sat back for the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years. That lesson got off to a rough start, and Harry actually ended up taking points from both houses.

"Stupid Mudblood," a Slytherin said to one of the Gryffindor girls as they walked in the door. "I bet you haven't even seen a red cap before."

The Gryffindor was too quick for the Slytherin to react. In a flash of red light, he was knocked over, and fell to the ground. Harry instantly intervened, and put both of them in a full body bind, and revived the Slytherin.

To the Slytherin, he said, "I will not tolerate that language in this classroom, and neither will Professor Lupin." He turned to the Gryffindor. "What you did was wrong. You should have come to me, and let me take care of the situation. Thirty points from Gryffindor for attacking another student. Thirty points from Slytherin for harassing another student. You will both serve detention here tonight at seven thirty pm sharp. By the way, we aren't studying red caps, we will be studying boggarts."

With that incident resolved, the rest of the lesson went smoothly, and Harry felt that he had made his point. In the end, both houses earned thirty points by answering questions, and it all balanced out. After that class had left, it was time for lunch. Harry walked down to the Great Hall, and met Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table.

"How were your classes?" Hermione asked.

"They were great! Everyone got their boggart on the first try."

"That's awesome," said Ron. "What kind of boggarts did you see?

"A vampire, Voldemort, a werewolf, Snape again, a phoenix—"

"A phoenix?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, I know. That's not a good sign. Whose was it? A Slytherin?"

"Malcolm Baddock, and yes, he is a Slytherin."

The fourth year classes proceeded smoothly, and after dinner, Harry, Hermione, and Ron proceeded to the Room of Requirement.

"You're not going to be here tonight," said Tonks. "Since you are animagi now, you will meet Professor Lupin at the Shrieking Shack. He will be tame, but he could use some company. Dumbledore says to stay in your forms at all times, and be in by eleven o'clock. Remus will be fine."

"This will be awesome," said Harry.

They transformed, Harry into a wolf, Hermione into an owl, and Ron into a giant German shepherd. They ran through the halls and out the door. By the time they got there, Remus was already transformed. They played tag for a while, then, they played catch with small pebbles. At eleven o'clock, Harry, Hermione, and Ron transformed, and walked back up to the castle.

"That was fun," said Hermione. "He was perfectly tame."

"It was," agreed Ron. "We need to do that more often."

"Definitely," Harry agreed.

The moon rose above the lake, and Remus looked up at the Gryffindor tower, and saw the last light go out for the night.

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A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. I lost it once, and had to completely retype it. This chapter may seem a bit random, compared to the title of the story. More about that will be explained in future chapters. Anyways, thank you for reading so far. Please Review!

**Review Responses:**

**Milky Neon: **Thank you for reviewing, as always. I think I have found the balance between fanfiction and school, and it seems to work out to be about 3,000 words a week, or so. Maybe I'll be able to write more over the holidays...

**Athenakitty (Chapter 1): **Thank you for reviewing! Yes, the prologue is actually a flashback to the time when Hogwarts was being created. That would be an early member of the Trelawney line, and if you are up on Greek mythology, I'm sure you know exactly which character our crazy divination professor is descended from...

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**Next Update: **Before October 6th. Please see my bio for a status report. 


	7. The Legend of the Phoenix

DISCLAIMER: Mars is bright tonight.

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to jbfritz, for motivating me to get another chapter online. I haven't updated forever, because I've been too busy with school.

**Chapter Six: The Legend of the Phoenix**

September passed quickly, and the leaves began to change. Classes were continuing, and many students were spending hours studying in the common room. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were not a part of this trend. Their housemates were amazed that they could do all their homework in a few hours in the library. Of course, they weren't going to the library, and Tonks always gave them plenty of time in their nightly training sessions.

In the Room of Requirement, they were studying for their NEWTS. It involved a lot of memorization, but sometime in mid September, Hermione discovered the solution. If they organized their minds, they could store memories off in separate categories, and with their meditation, they could file the numerous facts and incantations away in their brain, and could access them at any time. Harry was progressing far faster than the others, because of his occulmency practice, but they were all progressing nicely. By the time Christmas break rolled around, they should have gotten all the facts they need to know for their NEWTS filed away.

The first week of October found Harry looking out the library window. Out on the Quidditch pitch was the Ravenclaw team. The first match of the season would be Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, and Harry wanted to be aware of what techniques the other team was planning to use. Gryffindor actually didn't have a team captain at this point. They were to vote on it the day before the match, but for now, everyone was just working together just fine, and there wasn't a need for central leadership.

Harry turned back to the bookshelves. For the first time, he noticed a red book, with a picture of a phoenix on the spine. He pulled it off the shelf, noting that it was titled _The Legend of the Phoenix_. He opened it to the first chapter.

_The phoenix has been and always will be a creature of the light. Phoenix song is magical; it is reputed to increase the courage of the pure of heart and to strike fear into the hearts of the impure. The phoenix is an immortal bird, and is the only know creature that has survived the _Avada Kedavra_ killing curse._

_To date, only five phoenixes have been discovered. It is rare for one to find a phoenix egg, and since no known phoenix have ever laid an egg, it is impossible to purchase a phoenix. The phoenix will choose its master. _

Harry remembered the dream he had had back during the summer. Sliding the book into the pocket of his robe, he walked rapidly out of the library. Before long, he arrived at the gargoyles, which guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Canary Creams," said Harry, and the gargoyles opened. Harry climbed the revolving staircase, and knocked on the door.

"Come in," called Dumbledore.

"Professor," Harry began. "What do you know about phoenixes? I found this book—"

"The Legend of the Phoenix?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes sir, how did you know?"

"I found it too, many years ago, shortly before Fawkes joined me. The book is charmed. Only those worthy of being paired with a phoenix can see it."

"Worthy?"

"The phoenix is a creature of the light, as I'm sure you know. Only those strongly dedicated to the light can be paired with a phoenix. The phoenix chooses it's master, much like the wand chooses the wizard."

"Anyways, at the beginning, it says that there are only five phoenixes in existence. I didn't know they were that rare. I had a vision about all this, which brings me to the conclusion that there will only be seven phoenixes in total."

"Indeed, I have heard that theory before. Did Professor Binns ever teach you how wizards came to be?"

"I'm sure he did, but I don't remember," replied Harry.

"A long time ago, back when humans were created, Zeus also created another race of men: wizards. Zeus put Merlin in charge of these people, giving him more powers than any other wizard. It is rumored that Merlin is still alive today, watching over our world from another realm."

"So he is immortal?"

"No, no man can become immortal. Merlin died many thousands of years ago. We do not know much about death. In fact, we know nothing about it. Ghosts know a little, but they don't tell anyone about the next realm."

"How many phoenixes have been discovered so far?" Harry asked.

"Six so far. We know the properties of some of them better than others. The first phoenix is extremely special, as it is the only phoenix whose tears can counteract the basilisk poison. Anyways, I believe you will understand soon enough." Dumbledore ended the conversation, and Harry stood up.

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Review Responses

**Potter Reader:** Thanks for your review.  
**jbfritz** Thank you for the motivation and reviews. Updates will be sporadic, and this is all I have now. I have some severe writers block now, so I need to figure out where to go with this.


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